A Colorado judge will allow prosecutors to interrogate theater gunman James Holmes using truth serum if he pleads not guilty by reason of insanity.

Holmes is the suspected gunman involved in the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado last July. Holmes has been charged with multiple counts of murder for the open shooting, which killed 12 people and injured another 58.

Colorado Judge William Sylvester ruled that prosecutors have the choice to use truth serum on Holmes in a "narcoanalytic interview" to determine whether or not he was legally insane during the July 20 shooting last year. But this is only if Holmes pleads not guilty by reason of insanity.

A plea of not guilty had been entered for Holmes yesterday after his lawyer said that the defendant was not ready to enter his own plea. Holmes can later change it.

Legal experts have questioned Judge Sylvester's ruling, saying that taking away the fifth amendment rights of the defendant because of an authorization to use truth serum drugs will raise a lot of fifth amendment-related issues.

Also, a jury may object to the court forcing truth serum upon the defendant.

Medical experts have weighed in as well, saying that the defendant still has the ability to lie while using truth serum. They also said that truth serum would be effective at determining Holmes' current state of mind, but a short-acting barbiturate like truth serum would not indicate his state of mind during last year's shooting. It will only loosen him up to talk about it.

"First of all, people can still lie under the influence of amytal," said Dr. August Piper, a psychiatrist from Seattle. "More importantly, the person under the influence of the drug is susceptible to outside suggestion. To try and do this would be unlikely to yield useful information, and could pervert the course of justice by rendering the defendant susceptible to pressure."

Dude, relax... I wasn't arguing that he was insane, I was just explaining why the difference is important.

You can't just say, sane or insane, he's guilty. There is a big difference and it needs to be taken seriously. For what it's worth, I hope they find that he was sane and knew what he was doing, so he can be punished accordingly.

quote: You can't just say, sane or insane, he's guilty. There is a big difference and it needs to be taken seriously. For what it's worth, I hope they find that he was sane and knew what he was doing, so he can be punished accordingly.

I think the difference between temporary insanity and permanent insanity may be important. If you are sane, and you premeditate and execute a mass murder, you are not fit to be in society and should be removed from it. If you are permanently insane and that insanity causes such action, then by virtue of permanence your insanity could cause such action again. Also, by virtue of insanity, you can't sanely predict when it will happen. As such, you are not fit to be in society and should be removed from it (permanently). I see temporary insanity as similar to crimes of passion and feel they should be treated the same. I'll leave you argue over what removal from society entails. I just wanted to chime in on the insanity plea. If only the U.S.A. could figure out how China, India, and Japan keep their relative incarceration rates so low.

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